Product Review Honest Kitchen Base Mix "Kindly"

Honest Kitchen's base mixes are known in my mind as my "raw training wheels" or "raw for dummies". Using a base mix took a lot of the guesswork and anxiety out of feeding raw for me. Yes, I said it. Anxiety. Many raw feeding groups and message boards are full of knowledgeable members who have their raw feeding groove down but also give off this impression of "lol it's not that hard." Guess what. When you start out, it is that hard. Last summer when I tried raw I could not sleep right and two out of three dogs had issues with the transition. It's easy to get scared right back to safe, clean kibble.

When I made the decision to try a base mix, I went no further than Honest Kitchen. There are other base mixes but I have had such a good experience with HK's products that I knew I would be happy with their base mixes. Honest Kitchen offers two base mixes, we used Kindly, now called "Veggie, Nut and Seed Base Mix". (Honest Kitchen recently renamed all of their products and to be honest I thought it was more user friendly when it was just called "Kindly".)

I chose to start small with just one dog this time, the dog who did not have an issue with raw the last time: Perri. I was also curious to see if Perri would enjoy more behavioral benefits from a fresher diet since whether by coincidence or not, she brightened up when salmon oil was added to her diet. Oh and also? Perri has never really liked kibble in the first place and she has bowels of steel, she would not be likely to get diarrhea.

With the base mix, you do not need to feed or figure out the ratios of bone and organ required for a DIY raw diet. You simply need measure out and add water to the proper amount of HK base mix and then add the indicated amount of muscle meat into the mixture. You can use raw or cooked meat, I chose to use all raw. The base mix rehydrates easily and quickly and mixes well with the meat. And Perri loves it. Perri has not refused her food since we started on the base mix about a month and a half ago. She has tolerated a rotation of different meats as well as raw eggs mixed into her food. The only downside is that I do notice the carrots and flax seed seem seem to pass right through to her poop, which makes me wonder how much benefit vs. filler those ingredients are. 

During the time we used the base mix, I became a lot more comfortable with sourcing, measuring and feeding raw meat. Using the base mix was the transition that I needed and I am very grateful that products like this exist and I would recommend it to anybody who is nervous to start raw. It's a really user friendly push in the right direction with assurance that your dog is still getting all of the nutrients they need while you learn!